


Caught

by quartetship



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Fluff, Gift Fic, M/M, My First Work in This Fandom, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-26
Updated: 2016-06-26
Packaged: 2018-07-18 10:11:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7310785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quartetship/pseuds/quartetship
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Wanna go for a walk?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Caught

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hachidorikun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hachidorikun/gifts).



> Ahhhh, my very first attempt at writing anything for Haikyuu, please be patient with me, I'm new here. 
> 
> This was written as a little birthday gift for the fabulous Hachi, whose friendship I am beyond blessed to have. Happy birthday, love!
> 
> \--

To say that Nishinoya Yuu was a good catch would be an understatement. Quick witted, energetic, adorable and genuine, to know him was to love him, if you could get past the occasional annoyance. The problem wasn't whether or not he was worth catching - it was whether or not you  _ could.  _

Noya never slowed down. He was known to be quick on and off the court, but his feet weren't nearly as fast as his mouth, which is turn wasn't half as fast as his mind. His days were full ones, his calendar packed more tightly than most people could pack a suitcase. Life was a race, and there was nothing stopping him from winning, because hardly anyone could keep up with him, let alone lap him. 

Because of that, Noya had spent most of his life as a solo act. Of course, playing on a team meant friends, and he had some incredible ones. Volleyball had given him an extended family of siblings, people to laugh and cry with, to look up to and to guide. But a life in constant motion was a lonely one, whenever his feet stopped long enough to let his mind wander, because his heart was never far behind in reminding him that at the end of the day, he had no one to go home to. 

No one could keep pace. 

The hope that someone would one day learn was what kept him single. The few times he'd mentioned it, Tanaka or whoever might have been close enough to hear would reassure him that someday, he would find someone who could keep up, and he would smile in agreement, sure they were right. Hoping. 

But no one ever appeared to take their place beside him. 

Bemoaning that one day to a friend, Nishinoya laid himself bare. He never been the type to keep things to himself, anyway; raking his hand through frustration-wrecked hair, there was no sense in starting, that day. 

“Asahi-san,  _ why?  _ Why am I still alone? I have so many friends, and they all say there's nothing wrong with me… Why does no one else agree?” 

“I don't think you've spoken to everyone to know that they don't,” Asahi said quietly, and when Noya squinted back at him, inquisitive, he cleared his throat. “I mean… You don't know how everyone feels. But maybe you're just looking in the wrong places for partnership.”

“Where else am I  _ supposed _ to look?” Noya groaned. He lay backward on the bleacher seat where he was perched, sideways. Asahi was seated on the bench directly behind Noya’s, watching him, lips bitten together in a tight and anxious frown. Noya crossed his arms over his chest where he lay, huffing. “Everyone always says, you'll know them when you find them, because it’ll be somebody who can keep up with you. Somebody who can catch you. Somebody  _ right beside _ you. So where the hell are they?!”

A moment of heavy silence passed as Noya contemplated his fate, wondering if he would find companionship in college, or if he would be faced with more of the same. After a brief daydream about loneliness into his senior years, his rapidly spiraling thoughts were interrupted by Asahi clearing his throat, once more. 

“You know, maybe the problem is your perspective.” He sat forward, elbows on his knees as he looked down - looked Nishinoya in the eye. “Maybe you're busy looking for someone to keep pace with you, and the problem isn't that they're not, it's that you're only looking in one direction for them.” Sitting backward, he folded his hands in his lap, shifting his weight. “If you would just turn to look, maybe you'd see that someone who has always been behind you - close behind - could be beside you, if you'd only let them.”

At that, he stopped, giving no further explanation. For a moment Noya stared back at him, eyebrow raised, confused. Then the way that they were seated struck him, and suddenly the slight, obviously anxious sway of Asahi in his seat made immensely more sense. Noya sat up slowly, still facing sideways on his own bench, Asahi at his side. 

“You know, I… I think maybe you're right.” He smiled. When Asahi’s expression didn't soften, Noya turned to face him head on, leaning into his space, resting his own elbow’s on Asahi’s knees. “Wanna go for a walk? This time, I’ll let you walk right beside me.”

From that day on, Noya didn't feel alone anymore, because he realized he never had been. He had always been surrounded by friends and teammates who cared about him, and what he'd wanted more than any of that had been right behind him, all the time. No longer did he need someone to keep stride with him; catching Nishinoya was no longer a race. 

What he wanted in the end was not someone to  _ catch up _ to him, but rather to catch him when he fell, and that was exactly what Asahi offered to do. His arms were waiting whenever Noya was ready to slow his steps, but he never held too tightly. He let Noya run, let him be free to fly, but was always there to provide a place for him to land when he wanted it. Asahi was the end of the rainbow, the final destination of a shooting star, he was warm, soft earth for a buzzing bee to find refuge upon. Like the snug fit of a baseball into a catcher’s mitt, Nishinoya had never fit so comfortably against someone, never felt so right, being still. 

He never realized being caught would mean simply  _ letting _ himself be, but he never regretted it for a moment. 

Years later, with a ring sliding onto his finger and elected tears sliding down the cheeks of the person he loved, Noya knew that he had truly been captured, body and soul, as he was promising to stay forever in the hold that falling in love had put him in. But it was entirely his choosing, exactly what he wanted. Never tethered, but always bound by his own happy heart, he promised to pledge that heart to Asahi, for the rest of their lives, promised to take time every day to turn his head, to find love where it had always been. 

He said yes. 

And there was never a need to look back, once he'd changed his perspective. 


End file.
